What do your (projected) post retirement expenses look like?

Archerychick

Pythagorous said:

As it says, I'm keen to hear what people think they will need in the early days of their retirement (the go-go years!) to cover expenses, assuming the mortgage is paid and kids are through uni etc?

Or if you are currently retired, what it looks like.

My own quick back the envelope calculations, show monthly expenses as follows (this is for a married couple). Not sure if I've missed anything other than maybe health related expenses?

I do need to do this, I know I will have sufficient funds for my retirement but would like to work out my earliest retirement date because I think that will be comforting.

i think everyone’s ‘number’ will vastly differ, for example I don’t currently spend £350 a year eating out, but you do in a month because that’s your lifestyle. 

Great to have your numbers, and I can see some good suggestions for additions have been made too. In council tax it’s only a 25% reduction for a single person household, and I don’t think things like heating and electricity radically changes with one vs two persons. 

Pythagorous

Cloth_of_Gold said:

I'm not sure that looking at others' expenses has much purpose as not only is there a great diversity of needs/wants, there is also a great diversity of income, and ultimately whatever your needs/wants you have to cut according to your cloth, in the long-term at least. 

Also, things can change quite quickly so if, for example one of you develops a health problem you might spend a good deal less on travel and eating out but more on care/aids & adaptations/private health care, and if you are at home more, more on heating.

I disagree. i think seeing others helps me sanity check things. Agreed though, of course, naturally all plans are just that, plans are susceptible to changing circumstances.

Pythagorous

dunstonh said:

I would be surprised if, in the real world, a single person uses 50%of what the couple uses.     That would be far too simplistic.  For example, heating, electricity, travel, council tax wouldn't be 50% on the loss of one.

Many people spend more than their working income in the early years after retiring as they have more time on their hand and fill it with travel and dining out.   Others haven't prepared for retirement and have a massive shock in living standards when reality sets home.

Where you are in the country matters (in terms of cost of living) and also activities you can do that do or do not cost much.  

Broadly speaking. Take your current spend during your working years.  Remove debts that will be repaid and after that, you will be in the broad ballpark of what you spend to maintain your living standards  (if you have things like train tickets for commuting, then remove that as well).

Good point. Not sure why I added those extra columns lol.

barnstar2077

As mentioned above, where you live is a large part of it.  In my city, the cinema, crazy golf or bowling is twice the price than if you do the same things in a nearby town.  If I lived up north it would probably be cheaper still!

Nebulous2

Pythagorous said:

As it says, I'm keen to hear what people think they will need in the early days of their retirement (the go-go years!) to cover expenses, assuming the mortgage is paid and kids are through uni etc?

Or if you are currently retired, what it looks like.

My own quick back the envelope calculations, show monthly expenses as follows (this is for a married couple). Not sure if I've missed anything other than maybe health related expenses?

We are a couple of years in - though I'm working part-time. We don't budget, but I complete a spreadsheet with the current state of our finances on the 1st of every month. Our total expenditure would be close to your estimate.

Very roughly:- 

Your food is higher than ours. We are more like £200 a week, which I thought was high. 
With two vehicles our car expenses are considerably higher than that, more like £600 a month. 
General spending is quite a rough category - but eating out and takeaways would be around £200.
Travel again is very broad, holidays would be a bit more than you are spending on travel. Some of that would come from our food budget - eating in a self-catering apartment or a caravan is instead of, rather than as well as, eating at home. Again a lot of our holidays are driving, so there is some overlap with the car expenses. 

El_Torro

I'm not likely to retire within the next 10 years so still have some time to think about what I'll be spending when the day does finally arrive. For my current planning I am assuming that I'll be spending roughly the same as I am now. 

On the one hand I won't be paying to get to work (I currently work from home a couple of days a week anyway). I also won't be doing work travel, both in the UK and abroad. I do this a fair bit at the moment; the hotels, taxis, flights and meals add up. 

On the other hand the temptation to take holidays (which I can't expense) will increase, as will activities that cost money, during the hours that I would previously have been working. 

I have been keeping a tally of my spending in recent years and have a good handle on what my current spend is. I also see spikes, when I have replaced my car, or when I pay for expensive holidays. I don't have a detailed breakdown of where my money goes, though like I say I'm assuming for now that my spending will remain the same in retirement as it is now (adjusted for inflation of course), so that's the figure I'm working towards. 

Cloth_of_Gold

Pythagorous said:

Cloth_of_Gold said:

I'm not sure that looking at others' expenses has much purpose as not only is there a great diversity of needs/wants, there is also a great diversity of income, and ultimately whatever your needs/wants you have to cut according to your cloth, in the long-term at least. 

Also, things can change quite quickly so if, for example one of you develops a health problem you might spend a good deal less on travel and eating out but more on care/aids & adaptations/private health care, and if you are at home more, more on heating.

I disagree. i think seeing others helps me sanity check things. Agreed though, of course, naturally all plans are just that, plans are susceptible to changing circumstances.

Fair enough if it feels it helps you. Personally, knowing what others spend on x or y when their circumstances/needs/desires, even if I knew them, are probably totally different to mine, would be of no benefit.

Pythagorous

Cloth_of_Gold said:

Pythagorous said:

Cloth_of_Gold said:

I'm not sure that looking at others' expenses has much purpose as not only is there a great diversity of needs/wants, there is also a great diversity of income, and ultimately whatever your needs/wants you have to cut according to your cloth, in the long-term at least. 

Also, things can change quite quickly so if, for example one of you develops a health problem you might spend a good deal less on travel and eating out but more on care/aids & adaptations/private health care, and if you are at home more, more on heating.

I disagree. i think seeing others helps me sanity check things. Agreed though, of course, naturally all plans are just that, plans are susceptible to changing circumstances.

Fair enough if it feels it helps you. Personally, knowing what others spend on x or y when their circumstances/needs/desires, even if I knew them, are probably totally different to mine, would be of no benefit.

We are all different. What helps one person may not help another ;-)

Phossy

You may want to look here also How much to live on - Page 182 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Attached below is a view on mine and my wife's expected base spending in retirement. I do expect to spend more, though I consider that spending discretionary/ adaptive and I have a separate plan for that.  Note that the first 4 lines account for 62% of the spend, car accounts for 12%, media 10% and insurances 8%. The remaining 6% is really hobby related.

The gaps in this spreadsheet are because it is the same spreadsheet I use for current spending and I have the current and planned spend next to each other for comparison so I can see what has been removed and/ or reduced (comparison not shown here). The equivalent current spend is £1881/ month and the largest reductions we expect are due to moving to one car and stopping our life insurance payments (with the exception of the funeral plan my Dad set up for me 40 odd years ago!).

Suzycoll

Pythagorous said:

As it says, I'm keen to hear what people think they will need in the early days of their retirement (the go-go years!) to cover expenses, assuming the mortgage is paid and kids are through uni etc?

Or if you are currently retired, what it looks like.

My own quick back the envelope calculations, show monthly expenses as follows (this is for a married couple). Not sure if I've missed anything other than maybe health related expenses?

Wowzer your expenses listed are way more than I'm planning on have a budget for . 
I'm planning on spending as little as I can on cars or house . All my surplus will go on travel.
We are all different. 
Good luck & enjoy 💯